2025-07-05 03:52:38The air was cold.
Dust floated in the still room, lit only by the flickering light above. The smell of burnt wires and rust hung heavy, choking the silence. On the cracked floor, a young man slowly stirred.
His name was Jonah.
Jonah groaned and turned his head. Everything ached. His fingers twitched. His arms were heavy. But most of all, he was confused.
He opened his eyes slowly. The ceiling spun. Why am I still alive?
He remembered stepping on those wires. He remembered the jolt, sharp, blinding pain. Then, nothing. Blackness.
He shouldn’t be breathing. He shouldn't be alive.
But he was. The wires had carried thousands of volts. No one should survive that. Yet here he was. Sitting up. Breathing. Alive.
His heart raced as he looked down at his hands. They were trembling, but not burnt. No blood. No sign of injury. His chest rose and fell with each breath, shaky but strong.
Something wasn’t right. He stood up, slowly, and winced. Then he paused.
Why does my body feel so light?
It wasn’t normal. He felt quicker, stronger, but it was also scary. Like something had changed deep inside him, something he couldn’t explain.
And then he remembered something else, the voice.
Before he lost consciousness, just before everything went black, he had heard a voice. A woman’s voice. Calm and strange. She had said something about… a system?
Jonah looked around the room. “Hello?” he called, his voice hoarse. “Is anyone there?”
Silence.
He walked slowly, his boots crunching broken glass on the ground. His eyes scanned every corner. There was no one. Just the dim light, the cracked walls, and the heavy air.
“Who was that voice?” he whispered. “Where did she go?”
There was no answer.
His axe lay on the floor near the wall. He picked it up, gripping the handle tightly. It gave him comfort, even if it felt small in his hands now. Too small.
He pushed open the metal door and stepped into the hallway. The air outside was colder. The halls were dark and empty, but he could hear something, a soft groan, a scratch, maybe even a breath.
He wasn’t alone.
Jonah crouched low and crept forward, his eyes sharp. Something was wrong. Too quiet.
Then he stopped. His breath caught.
Five zombies were standing at the end of the hallway.
They weren’t moving. Not yet. Their eyes were pale and lifeless. Their skin hung like wet rags. They looked like statues, frozen in place.
Why haven’t they noticed me?
Jonah held his breath and took a step back.
Suddenly, clang!
His axe slipped and hit the floor with a sharp, loud clang. It echoed through the hall.
The zombies twitched. Then they turned.
All five heads snapped toward him.
“No…” Jonah whispered.
The zombies snarled and charged.
He dove for the axe and grabbed it. Just then, a wave of power surged through his body. His muscles tensed, his blood rushed. This wasn’t adrenaline. It was something else. Something stronger.
One of the zombies reached for his throat, but Jonah moved faster.
CRACK!
He brought the axe down hard and split the zombie’s skull clean in two. Blood sprayed. The body dropped.
He turned and swung again. Another one down. And again. And again.
He didn’t stop. His body moved like it knew what to do.
Within seconds, the hallway was silent again. The five zombies lay in a bloody heap.
Jonah stood over them, breathing hard. But he didn’t feel tired. Not at all.
“What… what just happened?” he asked himself. His hands were still holding the axe, but it wasn’t shaking. It felt natural. Like an extension of his arm.
Was it the axe? he wondered.
He stared at it. But it looked ordinary. Worn. Bloodstained. Not magical.
Then, he heard the voice again.
“System Host: Level Up. Strength increased.”
Jonah froze.
It wasn’t a woman this time. It was a clear voice in his head. Calm. Robotic.
“Who said that?” he shouted, looking around. “Who are you? Show yourself!”
“I am the voice of the System you now control.”
Jonah’s breath caught.
There was something inside him. Something alive. It was speaking to him.
“What are you talking about? What system? What did you do to me?” His heart was racing now. “Am I going crazy?”
“You are not crazy. You are the host of the Slayer System. You awakened it through the Catalyst, your refusal to die.”
Jonah staggered back.
The wires. His near-death. His will to survive. That was the Catalyst?
“Wait… Does this mean I have powers?” he asked, his voice shaky. “Am I… different now?”
“You are beyond human limits. Each zombie you slay increases your level. With each level comes greater strength, speed, and skill.”
He couldn’t believe it. But deep down, he knew it was true. He had changed.
“How many did I kill just now?” he asked quietly.
“Five. You are now Level 6. Title: Amateur Zombie Slayer.”
“Level 6…” Jonah looked down at his hands. They looked the same, but they weren’t. He felt the difference.
He clenched his fists and smiled faintly. “So… if I keep fighting, I keep getting stronger?”
“Correct.”
He nodded slowly. “Then maybe… maybe I can survive this.”
But then, a scream shattered his thoughts.
“Help us! Please! Anyone!”
It was a woman’s voice. Muffled. Panicked. From somewhere nearby.
Jonah turned toward the sound. “There are still people in this building,” he whispered.
His eyes narrowed. He gripped his axe tightly. “I need to help them.”
He started running down the dark hall, ready for whatever came next.
Previous Chapter
Latest Chapter
Chapter 119. The Nest Awakens
The wind over the ruined city was hot and heavy, like air coming from a furnace. The sky burned orange-red, and the clouds above looked as if they were on fire. From the heart of the city, strange beams of light shot into the sky, twisting, glowing, moving like living things. Every now and then, a low, deep sound rumbled through the ground, as if the world itself was breathing.Lisa opened her eyes slowly. The taste of dust filled her mouth. For a moment, she didn’t remember where she was. The last thing she recalled was the shaking ground, the collapse, and Jonah’s blazing form vanishing into the storm of fire and Hive flesh. Now, she was lying on cracked pavement, her clothes torn, her hands shaking. “Kevin…?” her voice cracked.Something moved beside her. Kevin groaned softly and sat up, his small face pale under the layer of dirt. “Lisa?” he whispered, looking around in fear. “What… What happened? Where’s Jonah?”Lisa tried to answer but her throat tightened. She glanced towar
Chapter 118. The Red Sky Rises 2
The wind rose without warning. One moment the night was still, and the next it was roaring like a living thing.Lisa woke first. She sat up inside the overturned truck, heart racing. The air hummed like electricity. Outside, the red fog had thickened, swirling across the ground in heavy waves. Each gust carried tiny sparks that glowed when they touched metal. “Rae,” Lisa whispered. “Wake up.”Rae stirred, then frowned. “It’s starting again, isn’t it?”Lisa nodded. Kevin was already awake, his small face lit faintly by the glow outside. He was staring out the window. “Lisa… it’s calling.”The words chilled her. “What’s calling, Kevin?”He didn’t blink. “The fire.”Before she could ask more, the ground began to shake. The metal shell of the truck groaned. Ellis hit his head trying to sit up. “What the hell?”The red storm hit them like a wave. Lightning slammed into the street, carving long, glowing lines through the concrete. The sky split open with light so bright it turned everythi
Chapter 118. The Red Sky Rises
Lisa walked at the front of the group, boots crunching over glass and ash. Kevin followed close beside her, clutching her hand. His small face was pale and tired, eyes half-closed from exhaustion.Behind them, Rae and Ellis dragged their feet, too quiet. No one had really spoken since the chamber collapsed. The air itself seemed to whisper now, like every ruined wall and twisted wire remembered Jonah’s voice.The world had changed overnight, aAnd none of them knew how much worse it would get.Lisa stopped beside a half-fallen traffic light. Its green bulb flickered weakly, the light twitching between green and red every few seconds. She stared up at it, lost in thought.Rae finally broke the silence. “You know it’s useless, right? That thing’s been blinking for hours. The city’s dead.”Lisa looked back at her. “Then why does it still have power?”Rae shrugged. “Hive veins under the ground. It’s feeding everything. We should keep moving before it finds us again.”Lisa didn’t argue. Sh
Chapter 117. The Burning Horizon 2
Everyone froze, catching their breath. Kevin clung to Lisa, crying quietly. Rae lowered her gun, her hands shaking. “What the hell was that?”Ellis wiped sweat from his face. “Hive spawn. But… it looked like it was burning inside.”Lisa looked at the pile of glowing ash. “Because Jonah’s fire is still in them. He’s fighting through them.”Rae stared at her. “You don’t know that.”Lisa met her eyes. “Yes, I do.”The creature’s ashes still glowed on the floor when the silence fell again. No one spoke for a long moment. The faint hum of the tunnels seemed louder now, like a heartbeat coming from under the ground.Rae checked her rifle and exhaled shakily. “That thing wasn’t just Hive,” she muttered. “It moved like it was alive, but its body. ”“Was burning from the inside,” Lisa finished quietly. She stared at the fading ash. “Jonah’s still fighting them. He’s inside the Hive somehow, turning its own things against it.”Ellis crouched near the remains, eyes half-narrowed. “Then maybe ev
Chapter 117. The Burning Horizon
Smoke still drifted across the broken plain where the city once stood. The air smelled of dust and ash. Every few seconds, the ground gave a low, tired groan, like it was still remembering what pain felt like.Lisa sat beside a fallen highway pillar, holding Kevin close. The boy had cried himself to sleep, his cheek pressed against her shoulder. His small body shivered even though the air was hot.Rae stood a few steps away, watching the horizon. The sky glowed red, clouds circling around a single pillar of fire in the distance. It looked like a tower made of light, pulsing with a slow rhythm that matched the ground’s faint tremor.Ellis crouched near a chunk of broken concrete, checking the few supplies they had left, half a bottle of water, a flare gun, a cracked map, and a small radio that hissed quietly with static. “No signal,” he said, his voice dry. “Not even the static’s normal anymore.”Rae didn’t look away from the burning skyline. “Nothing’s normal anymore.”Lisa laid Kev
Chapter 116. Echoes in the Dark 2
Jonah floated in the dark. There was no ground, no air, no sound of breathing. Only a vast red sky turning slowly above him, and a city hanging upside down in the distance. The buildings were broken, hanging by threads of light. He reached out, but his hand passed through them like smoke. The Hive had no shape, but it had a memory, his memory.Every step he took, the ground formed under his feet: burning streets, shattered windows, the old city he once knew. He walked through it in silence, the world flickering like fire seen through water. The more he walked, the more the city changed. Faces appeared in the smoke, Lisa’s, Kevin’s, the people he failed to save. Their eyes watched him, unblinking. “Jonah,” they whispered.He turned toward the sound. A voice rose from the mist, soft, warm, familiar. “You did this for them,” it said. “You wanted to protect. You wanted peace.”Jonah clenched his fists. “No. You’re not her.”The mist thickened, forming into Lisa’s shape. Her smile was g
You may also like
SUPER FARMING SYSTEM
Shame_less00756.6K viewsThe Invincible Arthur Gardner
Herolich99.1K viewsThe Black Card System
Danny_writes102.4K viewsLiving With The System
Jajajuba32.4K viewsReincarnation Skill System: Idris Beaufort's Revenge
Balayage Dawn4.9K viewsPath to Godhood
Royal writer2.2K viewsEquipped: Armory of Legends
IPNH1.4K viewsMortal Runes: Sanxi's Supernatural System
ALPHA-PEN ORIGINALS3.5K views